Argyle U18s 3 Newport County 0

Argyle U18s 3 Newport County 0

LOUIS Rooney scored a brace to help Argyle to a victory over Newport County in a rearranged fixture at Harper's Park. Jason Vincent netted the other goal in a comfortable win for Kevin Hodges' young Pilgrims.

The playing surface was near-perfect despite the amount of water it had taken, and Argyle started the game well with Jake Miller's angled drive flying in to the side-netting before the Argyle midfielder's pass, through the middle, saw Newport goalkeeper Jake Keating just beat Vincent to the ball.

Little was seen of the Welsh visitors' attack as Argyle provided most of the attacking moves. Ryan Lane found himself free at the far post, but his first time effort lacked power and direction.

Argyle's Northern Ireland under-19 International Rooney was twice denied the opening goal in the space of three minutes.

The first chance came on 21 minutes, when his angled drive beat Keating only for Nathan Matthias to clear the ball off the line. Rooney then went past the Newport 'keeper only for Kieran Parselle to get in a last ditch challenge to clear the danger.

Newport's first real effort on goal came on 33 minutes when Tom Owen-Evans raced clear only to see Cory Harvey pull off a fine save.

Argyle responded with Miller's left-wing cross finding Rooney but his diving header came back off the post. Will Sargent then had the ball in the back of the visitors' net only for the effort to be ruled out for a foul.

A fine one-handed save from Harvey turned Ben Brook's drive around the post before Argyle struck with two goals in the final two minutes of the half.

Rooney lost his marker to send a downward header inside the post from a left-wing corner, and the Argyle top scorer struck again after Mason Hughes' driven left-wing cross found him free to steer the ball home from close range.

Rooney had two chances to complete his hat-trick, early in the second half, but it was not until 10 minutes from time that Argyle completed a comfortable 3-0 victory.

Lane's left-wing corner found Tom Moxham heading goalwards for Vincent to cheekily back-heel the ball past a wrong-footed Keating.

Argyle: Cory Harvey, Mason Hughes, Jack Calver (Liam Knowles 84), Will Sargent, Owen Jones, Tom Moxham, Jason Vincent (Jamil Roberts 81), Callum Hall, Louis Rooney (Billy Palfrey 86), Jack Miller, Ryan Lane.